Her lecture, entitled "Compassion Matters," is free and open to the public. It will explore compassion as a disposition, a virtue, a way of being and a way of acting, and will consider the contribution compassion makes to creating the common good.

Copeland is the author of "Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race and Being," which was published by Fortress Press in 2010.

"Being human is neither abstract nor hypothetical. It is concrete, visceral and embodied in the everyday experience and relationships that determine who we are," Fortress Press wrote in describing the book. "In that case, argues distinguished theologian Shawn Copeland, we have much to learn from the embodied experience of black women who, for centuries, have borne in their bodies the identities and pathologies of those in power."

A professor in the theology department at Boston College, she has previously taught at Marquette University (1994-2003) and Yale University Divinity School (1989-94). She also taught systematic theology in the degree program at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University, from 1994-2005.